Two Sisters

Two Sisters


                                Two Sisters
| 10 min
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This animated short, etched directly onto tinted 70 mm film, depicts the story of two sisters: Viola, who writes novels in a dark room, and Marie, her only companion. Disfigured, Viola counts on her sister to take care of her and shelter her from the outside world. But when an unexpected stranger turns up on their front door, the sisters' quiet lives are disrupted and their routine turns to chaos.

Caroline Leaf made this tour de force in the technique pioneered by McLaren – that of etching directly into the emulsion of the film. Leaf herself pioneered the techniques of animating sand and oil on a light box directly under a camera. A legendary perfectionist, Leaf said that she was tired of working for an eternity locked away in dark rooms. If she scratched directly into film stock, she would be able to make a film quickly. For Two Sisters, she decided to use 70 mm Imax film with different coloured emulsions, e.g., black or green. Perfectionism, however, reared its head and Leaf was still stuck in a dark room animating for two years. But it was worth it. This story of the relationship between two sisters, one disfigured, which is disturbed by the appearance of a male stranger is wonderfully animated and profoundly emotional. In 1974 I watched the silent test print of another Caroline Leaf film – The Owl that Married a Goose– with Norman McLaren. I was speechless. McLaren wept.

Donald McWilliams
From the playlist: Norman McLaren: Hands-on Animation

Best Film Award - Category: Fiction, Short Film 1991

This animated short, etched directly onto tinted 70 mm film, depicts the story of two sisters: Viola, who writes novels in a dark room, and Marie, her only companion. Disfigured, Viola counts on her sister to take care of her and shelter her from the outside world. But when an unexpected stranger turns up on their front door, the sisters' quiet lives are disrupted and their routine turns to chaos.

Albert Ohayon
From the playlist: Annecy Winners

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Two Sisters , Caroline Leaf, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

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Credits
  • director
    Caroline Leaf
  • script
    Caroline Leaf
  • animation
    Caroline Leaf
  • producer
    Robert Forget
    Yves Leduc
    Dagmar Teufel
    Jacques Vallée
  • animation camera
    Pierre Landry
  • sound
    Shelley Craig
    Louis Hone
  • editing
    Camille Laperrière
  • sound editing
    Wojtek Klis
  • re-recording
    Jean-Pierre Joutel
    Shelley Craig
  • voice
    Kathleen Fee
    Jane Woods
    Michael Rudder
  • music
    Judith Gruber-Stitzer

  • Amoridere

    This film is beautiful but I cannot help but wonder if Marie means well but is to the point of being overprotective and domineering and uses her sister's looks to her advantage

    Amoridere, 7 Jun 2013

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